YOUR SAY: It's time to take climate change action

HOW many times now have we heard from the international scientific community that "We have five years to save the planet (civilization) by preventing a global temperature increase of two degrees Celsius"?

The headline sticks in our mind but the details are forgotten.

The first time you heard that, the message would have been that we had five years to peak our carbon dioxide emissions and then to reduce emissions by 3% each and every year thereafter (orderly reduction).

The second time you heard it would have included the requirement of reducing emissions by 6% each year, and so on, always five years left to peak but with the emission reductions required becoming more and more the stuff of fantasy, required reductions that have never before been seen even during global recessions.

This failure of communication has led to the general population rightly comparing it with the little boy who cried Wolf, the message must be made clear not drowned in a meaningless headline.

Psychologists tell us that people respond if they know there is hope and would just give up if they are told he truth.

Communication is important and explaining the dire predicament we are in should be included in that communication.

In knowing the full story we can then choose fight or flight, I believe we will choose to fight but how can we even decide when we are completely unaware of the reality?